


Running Up That Hill

by InsideA14YearOldGirl



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 12:10:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10639584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsideA14YearOldGirl/pseuds/InsideA14YearOldGirl
Summary: A moment stolen, their places changed...He was the first. But what if it had been her instead?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Placebo's version of "Running Up That Hill". Also because the anime had just ended when I began to write it and I thought about writing it. Call it a "spark of inspiration".

It's winter. It's winter again. And it's raining.

The shovel moves slowly to Sakura Haruno. As every piece of dirt falls over the casket, Sakura sees centuries happening ahead of her.

Everyone dies. Everyone eventually dies. It only came a little sooner to her. Brain cancer, so horrible. She agonized over months, always refusing to give up. But she lived a long life. 70 years, a stable marriage, and lived enough to know her grandsons.

Only a little sooner. Sakura looks at her hand, and sees the age marks. Little to no more point in vanity, she thinks, and almost smiles before realizing again where she is.

Naruto, his hair a little bit gray, is crying at her left, holding her portrait with both hands at his chest, hugging it.

He is aging slower than us after all, she thinks. Sakura thinks how it's sad that Naruto is gonna be the last.

Neji was the first, she suddenly remembers. Neji had become such a distant memory. She remembers, she would always remember, but time slowly erases everything.

"What if he hadn't died?"

That thought suddenly appeared at her mind. But she tries to shake it, but it doesn't go away...

It would be Hinata. It would be Hinata.

"If Neji was just a few seconds late...losing maybe an arm, a finger..."

She tries to shake it, but it is like a volcano whose eruption can't be stopped.

"Neji's words would make Naruto regain his will to fight, I'm sure..."

No, he couldn't do the same. He would blame himself for Hinata's death and don't would...

"Everything would happen the same way, but she would be dead, and Naruto..."

She bites her lip. Is that voice in the back of her head again, that voice she didn't want to hear again...

"Some problem?" says Sasuke, at her right. Not that he can read her thoughts, but that he can see the blood on her lip.

"Oh my, I'm so careless."

Suddenly a younger hand appears with a white scarf, though a bit wet with tears. It's Sarada.

Without a sound coming from each mouth, Sakura clears the blood and gives the scarf back to Sarada.

* * *

Naruto hugged her just before Sasuke. Hard.

"I know you tried everything. Thank you."

"She was my friend, you know. And if you feel something wrong , you can call me. I'm your second mom, right?"

"You're my sister."

Sister. There was a deeper connection between brother and sister than mom and son? Sakura couldn't know with precision, it was Hinata that had a son and a daughter and Sakura only had a daughter.

When they walked back home, only Sasuke and Sakura because Sarada decided to go with Boruto to go along with Naruto, Sasuke finally decided to say something about Hinata Hyuuga.

"She was sinless."

"She was flawless."answered Sakura by instinct, and she suddenly stopped because she was puzzled by the adjective she used.

* * *

Laying on her bed, with Sasuke sleeping on her side, Sakura kept thinking.

"But maybe it would be Neji who we would have to say goodbye today. The places would be changed, but the result..."

"Neji could have had a family..."

"Hinata has a family..."

"Why, why I'm caring so much?"

Sakura's eyes slowly closed...

* * *

"And I declare you..."

"Naruto, I love you..."

He cried. She could see in her eyes he loved her too.

"We and Hanabi are marrying."

"But your fathers aren't twins? Doesn't that make you OUCH Sakura!"

"I think I'm gonna marry Karin Sakura. That girl likes me for some reason."

"Mommy mommy!"

"Yo, your breasts are getting bigger AAAHHH!... Sorry, I'm a..."

Sakura stops herself and hugs him.

"It's okay now, pervert..."

She lets her hair grow longer...

She sees a girl with pink hair and a redhead boy, similar to his mom...

Sakura sees images of a world that never happened, of families that were never formed, of friendship and marriages...

But then she sees the image of a single solitary little girl with black hair, playing with her toys, away from everyone, like Naruto...

And as Sakura tries to observe her, the girl raises her head and Sakura sees her growing quickly before her very eyes, and as she turns, she sees Sarada, her Sharingan on Mangekyo mode, and she looks straight inside Sakura.

"Do you hate me so much mom?"

* * *

Sakura wakes up, tears rolling from her eyes.

Sasuke isn't in the bed. She goes to the kitchen and finds Sarada and Sasuke there discussing something. While the girl says "good morning" Sakura practically teleports towards her to put her around her arms.

"Mom?"

"I love you darling, the way you are sweety, I love you".

Sarada smiles and hugs her back, and Sasuke feels so embarrassed that he turns away.

"You two are making me feel disconcerted".


End file.
